Methods for making plated through holes usable as interconnection wire or probe attachments

ABSTRACT

Methods are provided for making plated through holes usable for inserting and attaching connector probes. In a first method, a curved plated through hole is formed by bonding curved etchable wires to a first substrate, plating the wires with a non-etchable conductive material, encasing the plated wires with a dielectric material to form a second substrate, planing the second substrate to expose the etchable wire, and etching the wires to leave plated through holes. In a second method, wires coated with a first etchable layer are initially bonded to a substrate, a second non-etchable plating layer is then applied over the first layer, and the first layer is etched away leaving plated through holes with wires disposed inside. In a third embodiment, a layer of masking material is initially deposited on a substrate and etched to form holes which are filled with a sacrificial fill material, the masking material is then removed, the fill material plated, grinding is performed to remove some plating to expose the fill material, and the fill material is then etched away leaving plated attachment wells. Probes may be attached to the plated through holes or attachment wells to create resilient spring contacts to form a wafer probe card assembly. A twisted tube plated through hole structure is formed by supporting twisted sacrificial wires coated with the plating material in a substrate, and later etching away the wires.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to methods for making plated throughholes. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods formaking plated through holes usable to attach and support interconnectionwires or probes.

2. Related Art

Plated through holes have been developed to connect electricalcomponents on different layers of multiple layer semiconductorstructures, such as layers of a printed circuit board (PCB). Platedthrough holes are further used to form interconnect elements enablingone PCB to be connected to components on a separate PCB or otherdiscrete electrical components.

With a single multilayered PCB, the plated through holes formed in thePCB during manufacture serve to provide electrical coupling betweencircuits on the different layers. Fabrication of a PCB typicallyincludes drilling a hole through a substrate made up of the layers,electrolytically plating the hole and conductive areas on the PCB layerswith a metallic substance such as copper to form the plated throughhole. A first circuit pattern is then formed in the conductive area on afirst PCB layer and a second circuit pattern on a second PCB layer suchthat the plated through hole electrically couples the first circuitpattern to the second circuit pattern.

Plated through holes were developed for layered PCBs because it wasgenerally found impractical due to the labor and cost involved to formmultiple connections by physically inserting a conductive element (suchas a wire) in a hole and then connecting the element to two circuits bysoldering or other means. As described above, the usual method offorming plated through holes is to plate the circuits formed on the PCBlayers and the through hole connections simultaneously so that thethrough hole connection is made as an integral part of circuit elementson different levels of the PCB without significant added labor or cost.

For two separate PCBs having electrical components to be connected aftermanufacture, or one PCB to be connected to a separate discreteelectrical component, an insertable conductive element (such as a wire)forming a connector is still typically used. Such connectors can beformed by inserting connector pins into plated through holes of separatePCBs and soldering them in place. Such plated through holes provideconnections between the pins and conductive regions on the separate PCBsor discrete components. An example of a technique of manufacturing PCBswith connector pins provided in plated through holes is described inU.S. Pat. No. 6,521,842, entitled “Hybrid Surface Mount And Pin ThruHole Circuit Board.”

Recently PCBs have been used to support multiple resilient wires orprobes to form probe cards used in temporarily connecting to electricalcomponents, such as on semiconductor wafers for testing. It would bedesirable to provide a method for efficiently manufacturing suchmultiple temporary connection elements for probe cards.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the present invention, methods are provided formaking plated through holes, or plated attachment wells to providemanufacturing flexibility. Methods are further described to enable theplated through holes or plated attachment wells to support wires whichmay be used to form electrical connectors or test probes.

In a first embodiment, a method is provided for making plated throughholes, which may be curved. Initially wires made of an etchable ordissolvable material are bonded to a sacrificial substrate. The wiresare curved if curved plated through holes are desired. The wires arethen plated with a durable conductive material that does not dissolveunder the same conditions as the wire material. The plated wires arethen encased in a dielectric material, such as epoxy or ceramic, to forma substrate containing the coated wires, leaving a portion of the wiresexposed extending beyond the dielectric material layer. The substrate isthen planed to expose the wire material inside the plating. The wirematerial is then etched or dissolved leaving plated through holes.

Plated through holes formed by the first embodiment can be used asinterconnect elements by inserting a rod into one end of the platedthrough holes, while forming solder bumps on the other ends.Alternatively, interconnect wires can be inserted through curved platedthrough holes, with the curved portion of the plated through holesproviding friction to prevent the interconnect wires from falling out.As another alternative, the probe wires can be inserted through theplated through holes and soldered in to assure they cannot be easilyremoved, particularly if the plated through holes are not curved.

In a second embodiment, a method is provided for making plated throughholes extending from a substrate, wherein a thin fiber wire is providedwithin each plated through hole. Initially in the second embodiment,wires coated with a layer of dissolvable material are bonded to asacrificial substrate. A plating layer is applied over the dissolvablematerial. Next the plating is partially ground down or polished toexpose a portion of the dissolvable material coating the wires. Thedissolvable material is then etched away or dissolved leaving platedthrough holes formed by the plating material extending above a substratewith wires disposed inside.

In a third embodiment, a method is provided for forming platedattachment wells for supporting connector wires or rods usingphotolithography techniques. For this method a layer of masking materialis initially deposited on a substrate and etched to form holes, whichare filled with a sacrificial fill material. The masking material isthen removed, and the sacrificial fill material plated with a conductivematerial. Grinding is performed to remove some plating to a desiredheight above the substrate exposing the sacrificial fill material. Thesacrificial fill material is then etched away leaving plated attachmentwells. Wires or rods may then be inserted into the plated attachmentwells and soldered in place.

The plated through holes formed, as described above, may be used tointerconnect layers of a single PCB. Resilient interconnect wires can berigidly provided in the plated through holes by solder or epoxy, orconfigured to be pluggable or unpluggable making spring contact with aplated through hole or attachment well without requiring solder or epoxyfor support. The interconnect wires or probes can further be rigidlyconnected to electrical components on other substrate layers (by solderor other means), or temporarily connectable resilient spring contacts(essentially forming test probe cards). As one example, the resilientinterconnect probes provided in the plated through holes can be theprobes described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,152.

In a further embodiment plated twisted tube springs forming twistedplated through holes are encased in a dielectric substrate to form aninterconnect layer. Initially to form the substrate with twisted tubesprings, wires made of a dissolvable material are twisted to a desiredpitch, plated with an electrically conductive alloy and inserted intoholes of a set of brass stencils. A dielectric substrate material isthen formed around the twisted wires with a portion of the wiresextending beyond the dielectric, and the dissolvable wire material andbrass stencils are etched away leaving only the electrically conductivetubes encased in a dielectric substrate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further details of the present invention are explained with the help ofthe attached drawings in which:

FIGS. 1A-1D show cross-sectional views of a substrate illustratingprocessing steps of a first method of manufacturing plated throughholes;

FIG. 2 illustrates interconnect elements which may be attached to theplated through holes made using the process shown in FIGS. 1A-1D to forma space transformer for a probe assembly;

FIGS. 3A-3C show how an interconnect element is formed by a thin wireinserted into the plated through holes made using the process shown byFIGS. 1A-1D;

FIGS. 4A-4D show cross-sectional views of a substrate illustratingprocessing steps of a second method of manufacturing plated throughholes with a thin wire inside;

FIGS. 5A-5E show cross-sectional views of a substrate illustratingprocessing steps of a third method of manufacturing plated attachmentwells;

FIGS. 6-7 illustrate attachment of interconnect probes in the platedattachment wells made using the process shown in FIGS. 5A-5E;

FIGS. 8A-8B show an alternative configuration for manufacturing a platedattachment well to support a probe without the need for soldering; and

FIGS. 9A-9E show cross-sectional views illustrating processing steps formanufacturing encased twisted tube springs that can be used as a layerfor electrically interconnecting two other substrate layers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1A-1D show cross sectional views illustrating steps of a firstmethod of making a substrate with plated through holes, where the platedthrough holes may be curved. In a first step shown in FIG. 1A, wires 2are bonded to a first sacrificial substrate 4. The wires 2 may be bondedusing standard wire bonding techniques, such as soldering or thermosonicbonding. The wires 2 are preferably made of a material that is readilyetched or dissolved (e.g., copper, gold, aluminum). The wires are curvedif curved plated through holes are desired, or straight if straightplated through holes are desired.

The first sacrificial substrate 4 can be formed using any number ofdesirable substrate materials. Examples of suitable substrate materialsinclude silicon, ceramic, Iron/Nickel alloys (e.g., “alloy 42,” “Kovar,”“CuInvarCU”), etc. To facilitate eventual release of the structures tobe formed on the first sacrificial substrate 4, its surface can becoated with a release layer, which may be a material that is readilyetched away. Suitable release materials include copper, gold, aluminumand titanium-tungsten, but are not limited by these examples. Thesurface of the first sacrificial substrate 4 may also be coated with amaterial that facilitates bonding the wires 2 to its surface. Suchmaterials include, for example, gold, palladium or silver. The coatingwhich serves to facilitate bonding can likewise serve to form aredistribution layer, similar to copper on a printed circuit board(PCB). With a redistribution layer exposed after the sacrificialsubstrate 4 has been etched away, components can be attached to thecoating or solder bumps can be placed in a fixed pattern. This gives thepossibility of a second redistribution layer including: 1) where coatedwires or probes are attached to the coating to connect to the secondlayer, and 2) where traces are deposited to connect to a second layer.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the wires 2 are coated with a durable platingmaterial 6 such as rhodium or palladium. Traces can be used as a mask toetch the wire-coating layer to connect to other components. Anydeposition method may be used, including electroplate, chemical vapordeposition, sputter deposition, electrolysis plating, electron beamdeposition, or thermal evaporation. If electroplating is used, it may bedesirable first to short the wires 2 together. This may be done in avariety of ways including (1) applying a layer of conductive material (ashorting layer) to the surface of the first sacrificial substrate, ifthe sacrificial substrate is not conductive in the first place, and thenbonding the wires to the shorting layer, or (2) providing connectionsfrom each wire through the first sacrificial substrate (e.g., throughvias in the substrate) to a shorting layer applied to the back side ofthe first sacrificial substrate 6. If the second of these two methods isused, the plating material 6 will form only on the wires 2 but not onthe surface of the first sacrificial substrate 4.

The plating 6 shown in FIG. 1B assumes that a shorting layer was appliedto both the surface of the first sacrificial substrate and the wiresbonded to the shorting layer. The plating thus forms on the wires andover the entire surface of the first sacrificial substrate. As analternative, masking material can be placed over selected areas of theshorting layer, preventing the plating from forming where the maskingmaterial is placed. The masking material can be used to pattern traces,which are formed in combination with the plated wires to connect thewires 2 to additional redistribution layers as described previously.

As will be seen, the wires 2 will be etched away, leaving a tube formedof the plating material 6. Alternatively, the wires can be pulled out ina separate operation after the coating is removed. To increase the innerdiameter of this tube, one or more intermediate etchable layers, may beformed on the wire prior to application of the final plating materialthat will form the tube. The intermediate etchable layers will then beetched away with the wires 2. Alternatively, thicker wires can be used.

As shown in FIG. 1C, the plated wires are then encased in a finaldielectric substrate material 8. Examples of material usable for thesubstrate 8 include (1) an epoxy that sets into a relatively hard,durable form, (2) a ceramic material like LTCC and HTCC, or (3) a glassmaterial, etc. The dielectric can have its surface metalized by applyinga coating using a known technique such as Chemical Vapor Deposition(CVD). The entire substrate can be electroplated with for example withnickel or a nickel alloy. The bulk substrate can then be grounded andused for impedance control.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1D, the first sacrificial substrate 4 is removed,and the top and bottom of the resulting structure are planarized, suchas by polishing, lapping, grinding etc. Etching is then performed toremove the wires 2 leaving the plated material to form plated throughholes 10. Planarizing the top is done enough to remove a portion of theplating 6 to expose the etchable wire material 2, so that the wirematerial 2 can be etched away. Planarizing the bottom can be done toremove the portion of the plating material 6 originally on the surfaceof substrate 4. Alternatively, rather than planarize the entire bottomsurface, selected portions of the plating 6 on the bottom surface of thesubstrate 4 may be etched so that the through holes are not shortedtogether. Of course, if a masking material was applied to the structureshown in FIG. 1A between the wires 2 prior to plating, then the plating6 shown in FIG. 1B would not have formed where the masking material wasdisposed, and the wires (and resulting through holes shown in FIG. 1D)would not be shorted together.

FIG. 2 shows a cross sectional view of the substrate 8 with platedthrough holes 10 formed by the process of FIGS. 1A-1D, illustratingexamples of how interconnect elements, such as rods or probes, can beattached. As shown in FIG. 2, ends of interconnect elements in the formof electrically conductive rods or probes 12 are inserted in and secured(e.g., by soldering) to the plated through holes 10. Such insertableinterconnect elements 12 may be rigidly attached to another device, suchas by soldering, to form a connector. The interconnect elements 12 canalso be resilient elements such as needle probes, cobra probes, orspring probes used to make components of a probe card assembly forprobing electronic devices, such as on semiconductor wafers.

Non-limiting examples of spring probes which may be used for theinterconnect element 12 are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,994,152 and6,255,126, U.S. Published Application No. US2001/0044225 A1, and pendingU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/202,712, filed Jul. 24, 2002, all ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference. Although the spring probesshown in some of these illustrative examples, such as U.S. Pat. No.6,255,126, are not cylindrical to permit insertion into the cylindricalopenings in the plated through holes 10 shown in FIG. 2, plated throughholes with other shapes could be formed as would be understood by aperson of skill in the art. For example, the cylindrical wires 2 used inthe steps of FIGS. 1A-1E can be replaced by square rods to enable theresulting plated through holes formed to match the square springelements described in U.S. Pat. 6,255,126. Likewise wires with othergeometrical shapes can be used to create plated through holes of asimilar shape depending upon the shape of the interconnect element used.

Additional interconnect elements 14 may also be formed on the other sideof the substrate. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the interconnectelements 14 are solder balls deposited over the plated through holes 10.Rod or probe interconnect elements 12 may be likewise inserted in placeof the solder balls 14 to provide resilient contacts on both surfaces ofsubstrate 8.

With resilient probes 12 attached to one side of the substrate 8 andsolder balls 14 on the other (as shown in FIG. 2), a space transformeris formed which can be used in a probe card assembly to directly connectto a semiconductor wafer or other device under test. The structure ofFIG. 2 can, thus, replace the space transformer 506 in FIG. 5 of U.S.Pat. No. 5,974,662, which is incorporated herein by reference. Withresilient probes contacts attached to both sides of a substrate (notshown in FIG. 2), an interposer, such as the interposer 504 of a probecard assembly shown in FIG. 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,974,662, can be formed.One or more structures like the one shown in FIG. 2 may be secured to alarger substrate to build up a large array of probes, such as the tile600 attached to a space transformer 622 in FIG. 6A of U.S. Pat. No.5,806,181, incorporated herein by reference.

FIGS. 3A-3C illustrate an additional interconnect element configurationwhich may be used with the substrate 8 having plated through holes 10formed by the process shown in FIGS. 1A-1D. FIGS. 3A-3C show how thinwires 16 are inserted into the plated through holes 10 of substrate 8.In FIG. 3A, the thin wire 16 is inserted into one of the plated throughholes 10 only to a point where the plated through hole curves. The wirecan be attached using solder similar to the rods or probes of FIG. 2.With curved plated though holes, the thin wire 16 can be insertedfarther into the curved plated through hole 10, as shown in FIG. 3B, sosoldering may not be required because friction with the walls of thethrough holes 10 may be sufficient to hold the thin wire 16 in place. Ifit is desirable to have thin wire probes extending from both sides of asubstrate, the thin wire 16 can be extended farther through the platedthrough hole 10, as shown in FIG. 3C. Again, if the plated through holeis curved, friction will hold the thin wire, so soldering may not berequired.

The wires 16 may form buckling beam (or “cobra”) type probes, with thesubstrate being a probe head, space transformer, or tile for a probecard. For buckling beam probes, the wires 16 are made of a resilientmaterial so that they bend when contact is made with another electricalelement, and then straighten out, or return to their original shape whendisconnected. Because the plated through holes 10 provide added currentcarrying capacity, the wires 16 may be thinner than prior buckling beamprobes. For example, such wires may have diameters less than 0.003inches and in some embodiments 0.002 inches, 0.001 inches, or evensmaller, while prior buckling beam probes required diameters of at least0.003 inches.

FIGS. 4A-4D illustrate a method of making a plated through hole with athin fiber inside. As shown in FIG. 4A, a ball 20 is formed at the endof a wire 22 on a spool 21. The wire 22 comprises a thin fiber 23 (e.g.,graphite) coated with a readily etched material layer 24 (e.g., copper,gold, aluminum). An electro-flame off tool 26, for example, may be usedto cut the wire 22 to create the ball 20. As shown in FIG. 4B, the ball20 is then bonded to a substrate 28 using standard wire bondingtechniques. Alternatively, the wires may be simply cut or shearedwithout forming a ball, and the wired bonded directly to the substrate28.

Wires 22 attached to the substrate 28 are next plated with a durableplating material 30 such as rhodium or palladium, as shown in FIG. 4C.Grinding or polishing is then performed to remove a portion of theplating material 30 to expose a portion of the etchable material coatinglayer 24. The etchable material layer 24 on the fiber 23 is then etchedaway, leaving the fiber 23 in a plated through hole tube formed by thedurable plating material 30, as shown in FIG. 4D. All of the etchablematerial coating 24 may be etched away, as shown in FIG. 4D, leaving thefiber 23 loose in the tube of plating material 30. Alternatively, aportion of the coating near the bottom of the tube of plating material30 may be left in place to better secure the fiber 23 inside the tube30.

The tube of plating material 30 can be bent or curved, causing an end ofthe wire 23 to “pop” out of the end of the tube 30. The wire may be thenmore readily attached to form a coaxial type connector with an air core.Alternatively, the fiber 23 can have multiple coatings, only one ofwhich will be readily etchable, so that after etching a wire will beprovided within multiple tubes.

As an alternative to using a wire 22 made up of a thin fiber 23 coatedwith a readily etchable material layer 24, as described with respect toFIGS. 4A-4D, the wires 22 used in the process can be made entirely of anetchable material. As such, all of the wires 22 will be entirely etchedaway in the process leaving only plated through hole tubes 30 standingon a substrate 28.

FIGS. 5A-5E illustrate a method of making a plated attachment well. Asshown in FIG. 5A, a substrate 40 is coated with a masking material 42having openings. The openings are filled with a sacrificial fillmaterial 44, as shown in FIG. 5B. The substrate 40 may form the surfaceof an electronic component, e.g. a space transformer, probe head, ortile for a probe card. As shown in FIG. 5C, the masking material 42 isnext removed, and the sacrificial fill material 44 is plated with adurable plating material 46. Grinding stops 48 may optionally beattached to the substrate 40. As shown in FIG. 5D, a casting material 50is applied. The casting material 50 is then ground (or polished orlapped or otherwise ground down) to the grinding stops 48 (if attached),as illustrated by the dashed line in FIG. 5D. After grinding the castingmaterial 50, the grinding stops 48 are removed and the sacrificial fillmaterial 44 is etched away, leaving the plating material formingattachment wells, as shown in FIG. 5E.

Rather than use grinding stops 48, a grinding machine may simply beconfigured to grind to a specified height above the electronic componentsurface or to grind a specified distance into the casting material. Thegrinding stops 48 may be any material that can be sensed by the grindingmachine, and the casting material 50 can be any material that willsupport the plated sacrificial fill material during grinding and thencan be readily removed (e.g., hard waxes, polymers, etc.).

FIGS. 6-7 illustrate exemplary uses of the substrate with attachmentwells formed using the method described with respect to FIGS. 5A-5E. InFIG. 6, rods or probes 55 are inserted and attached, e.g., by solderingto the attachment wells 46. FIG. 7 shows above surface wire type springprobes 57 and 59, which can be inserted in the attachment wells. Thespring probe 57 has a slot 60 forming a compressible contacting surfacewhen inserted within the well to securely hold the probe 57 within thewell. Even with the compression slot 60, soldering can be used to assurethe probe 57 remains engaged within the well. Probe 59 showsmodification to the probe 57 to add laterally protruding bumps 61 as analternative to assure the probe remains engaged within the well. Otheralternative wire-type probes may be formed by bonding wires inside thewells. For example, the wire shown in FIGS. 7A-7C of U.S. Pat. No.5,467,211 can be bonded inside the well. Optionally, the wire can becoated as shown in FIG. 8 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,211, incorporatedherein by reference. When any of the wire-type probes are inserted, thewell can be filled with solder to increase the strength of itsattachment if desired.

The sacrificial fill material used to form the attachment wells in FIGS.5A-5E can have a shape other than cylindrical. The fill material can besquare, rectangular, etc. As a further alternative illustrated by thedrawing in FIG. 8A, stacked structures of sacrificial fill material 62can be formed by depositing and masking multiple layers 64 and 66. Thestructure of FIG. 8A includes the rectangular layers 64 and 66, thesmaller 64 being stacked on top the larger 66.

The sacrificial fill structure 62 of FIG. 8A is used to form anattachment well 68 as shown in FIG. 8B, allowing a surface spring 69 tobe attached without the need for soldering. The spring probe 69 includesa compressible slot 70 and lateral extension bumps 72. The extensionbumps 72 extend into the large rectangular area, and engage the smallerrectangular area to prevent the spring probe 69 from being easilyremoved after insertion in the attachment well 68.

Probes or wires can be inserted into the attachment wells or platedthrough holes either one at a time, or together in a group fashion. Forexample, although only a single probe 69 is shown in FIG. 8, multiplespring probes such as probe 69 can be held in a fixture which aligns theprobes for insertion into separate attachment wells, enabling the groupof probes to be inserted into attachment wells concurrently. Evenwithout snapping the probes into attachment wells as in FIG. 8, afixture can hold groups of probes or wires in wells or holes whilesolder or epoxy is applied to secure the probes or wires concurrently.With support provided by the attachment wells or holes, groups of probescan potentially be transferred into the attachment wells or holesconcurrently without requiring a holding fixture for the probes. Probesor wires can be installed in single or group fashion into the attachmentwells or holes described herein, including the attachment wells formedas shown in FIGS. 5A-5E, or the plated through holes formed as shown inFIGS. 1A-1D. Wires or probes installed in a single or group fashion caninclude probes 12 of FIG. 2, wire 16 of FIGS. 3A-3C, probes 55 of FIG.6, probes 57 and 59 of FIG. 7, or probe 69 of FIG. 8B.

FIGS. 9A-9E show cross-sectional views illustrating processing steps formanufacturing encased twisted tube springs that can be used as a layerfor electrically interconnecting two other substrate layers. In a firststep shown in FIG. 9A, copper wires 74 with a square or rectangularcross section are twisted to a specific twist pitch. The copper wiresare then plated using a hard and highly electrically conductive alloysuch as rhodium. The coated wires are then cut to length.

As shown in FIG. 9B, a set of brass stencils 75-76 are used to align thetwisted wire rods 74. The base or bottom stencil 75 can be used as a keyfor the start of the twists if the wires are not separately twistedbefore insertion into the stencils 75 and 76. A portion of the twistedrods 74 extend outside each stencil. After the twisted rods are insertedin the stencils 75-76, the gap between the brass stencils is filled withepoxy 79 by molding a solid epoxy, or injecting the epoxy in liquid formaround the twisted wires, as shown in FIG. 9C.

As illustrated in FIG. 9D, the copper wire material and brass stencils75 and 76 are next dissolved leaving the hollow rhodium twisted tubesencased in epoxy. The rhodium tube springs and epoxy layer now forms alayer 78 which can be used to interconnect other layers. With the tubesaligned in a pattern by the brass stencils, the tubes of layer 78 can bealigned to match probe locations on another substrate, as illustrated inFIG. 9D. FIG. 9E further shows the layer 78 with twisted tubes connectedto mate with probes provided in attachment wells on a separate layer 80having attachment wells with probes as shown in FIG. 6. As shown in FIG.9E, to connect the layers 78 and 80, the probes on the layer 80 areinserted into the twisted tubes and can be attached using solder joints81.

The ability to rework a tile layer which supports spring probes(reworking meaning to remove the tile and replace it with another tile)is very difficult to accomplish if soldering or epoxy connects the tilelayer and an interconnecting space transformer layer to make permanentcontacts between the layers. Probes are typically formed and attached bysolder or epoxy to ceramic substrates to form tiles. The tiles are thenattached to another multiplayer ceramic substrate space transformerusing a thin film copper polyamide epoxy layer.

Reworking to remove a tile from a space transformer is further madedifficult if an underfill material (such as a teflon or silicon gel) isused as a seal to fill gaps between a connected tile and spacetransformer. The under fill material is used to absorb stress andprevent cracking of the connecting thin film epoxy layer which can beunder stress since during fabrication the rate of thermal expansion ofthe ceramic and epoxy layers is quite different. The difference in thecoefficient of thermal expansion between the tile supporting the probesand the multiplayer space transformer can cause a significantmisalignment. The curved plated through holes shown fabricated in FIGS.1A-1D can help alleviate the misalignment problem, along with theunderfill material. With different expansion rates between tile andspace transformer layers, the process of permanently joining the tilelayer to the space transformer layer is challenging and typicallyrequires expensive x-ray procedures to inspect.

The difficulty with removing permanently connected tiles and spacetransformer layers is similar to the difficulty in disconnectingindividual spring probes from tiles, since the spring probes musttypically be directly attached with solder or an epoxy film to assurethe probes remain robust. One solution to making the probes more easilyremovable is to use the spring contact probe and attachment wellcombination shown in FIG. 8B.

Although the present invention has been described above withparticularity, this was merely to teach one of ordinary skill in the arthow to make and use the invention. Many additional modifications willfall within the scope of the invention, as that scope is defined by thefollowing claims.

1-19. (canceled)
 20. A method of manufacturing conductive attachmentwells on a surface comprising: forming a masking material with openingsextending from an upper surface of the masking material toward thesurface; filling the openings in the masking material with etchable fillmaterial; removing the masking material, leaving the etchable fillmaterial on the surface; applying a plating material over the etchablefill material; applying a casting material over the surface and theplating material; grinding down the casting material and the platingmaterial so that the plating material is removed from over at least aportion of the etchable fill material; and etching away the etchablefill material leaving the plating material forming the conductiveattachment wells.
 21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:providing grinding stops of the surface prior to the step of applying acasting material over the first surface; and removing the grinding stopsafter the step of grinding down the casting material, wherein thegrinding down of the casting material comprises grinding until thegrinding stops are reached.
 22. The method of claim 20, furthercomprising: inserting resilient probes in the attachment wells; andbonding the resilient probes to the attachment wells.
 23. The method ofclaim 22, further comprising: filling the attachment wells with solderto increase attachment strength to the resilient probes.
 24. The methodof claim 20, wherein the openings in the masking material comprise afirst opening provided near the upper surface of the masking materialabove a second larger opening, the method further comprises comprisinginserting a resilient probes into the attachment wells, and theresilient probes each include protruding portions extending laterallyinto the second larger opening engaging the first opening. 25-26.(canceled)
 27. The method of claim 24, wherein the resilient probes eachinclude a slot.
 28. The method of claim 20, wherein the formingcomprises forming attachment indents in the openings at a distance fromthe upper surface of the masking material.
 29. The method of claim 28,further comprising inserting resilient probes in the attachment wells,wherein the resilient probes include protrusions for engaging theattachment indent.
 30. A method of testing semiconductor devices,comprising: providing conductive attachment wells on a substrate;inserting wire probes into the conductive attachment wells; bringing thewire probes into electronic contact with a semiconductor device; andtesting the semiconductor device.
 31. The method of claim 30, whereinthe providing conductive attachment wells comprises: forming a maskingmaterial with openings extending from an upper surface of the maskingmaterial toward the substrate; filling the openings in the maskingmaterial with etchable fill material; removing the masking material,leaving the etchable fill material on the surface; applying a platingmaterial over the etchable fill material; applying a casting materialover the surface and the plating material; grinding down the castingmaterial and the plating material so that the plating material isremoved from over at least a portion of the etchable fill material; andetching away the etchable fill material leaving the plating materialforming the conductive attachment wells.
 32. The method of claim 31,wherein the openings in the masking material comprise a first openingprovided near the upper surface of the masking material above a secondlarger opening, the method further comprises inserting resilient probesinto the attachment wells-and the resilient probes each includeprotruding portions extending laterally into the second larger openingengaging the first opening.
 33. The method of claim 31, wherein theresilient probes each include a slot.
 34. A probing apparatus,comprising: a substrate; a plurality of attachment wells on thesubstrate, a portion of which being adapted to receive resilient probes;and a plurality of resilient probes, each inserted into a respectiveconductive attachment well.
 35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein theattachment wells are conductive.
 36. The apparatus of claim 34, whereinthe attachment wells are formed lithographically on the substrate. 37.The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the resilient probes are soldered inthe attachment wells.
 38. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein theattachment wells comprise a first opening and a second opening of adifferent size.
 39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the second islarger than the first opening.
 40. The apparatus of claim 39, whereinthe second opening is adapted to receive an engaging portion of therespective resilient probe.